From the American people

Back to the digital divide

One of the good things that came my way in Gulu was that our new office building is/was internet-enabled, both wireless and wired.  Every room has a cable port and on each floor, a router.  As an appreciation for my good fortune, I decided to adopt the place and give it some of my time and attention.  I pop-in there to help the administrator lay-out the place, craft public notices and simple operational and security guidelines, show how to carefully dust the tabletops, monitors, and cpus, and hide those unsightly cables.  I was inspired to transfer my experience and knowledge in running

Made in the Philippines

a computer center especially when the back-up power supply was
installed for the site.  I hanged a wall calendar from the Philippines and  even gave the unique Philippine-made feather dusters.  Whenever I have visitors in our
office, I will always show them the lab

The ladies are gone

with the 20 sets of computers and computer tables all engraved with the phrase USAID - From the American people. Today, less than 2 years since its inauguration, the facility is

Manila wares

under-utilized because its services had been scaled down due to overhead costs.  Few ports are now active and the wireless local area network just serves one floor.  The wall calendars and the dusters are still there as a memory of what it used to be.  

I wonder what the American people would say now.

It was good while it lasted